Review of The Memory of Things, by Gae Polisner

Before I get started on my review, here is the jacket copy, from Goodreads:

The powerful story of two teenagers finding friendship, comfort, and first love in the days following 9/11 as their fractured city tries to put itself back together.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, sixteen-year-old Kyle Donohue watches the first twin tower come down from the window of Stuyvesant High School. Moments later, terrified and fleeing home to safety across the Brooklyn Bridge, he stumbles across a girl perched in the shadows. She is covered in ash and wearing a pair of costume wings. With his mother and sister in California and unable to reach his father, a New York City detective likely on his way to the disaster, Kyle makes the split-second decision to bring the girl home. What follows is their story, told in alternating points of view, as Kyle tries to unravel the mystery of the girl so he can return her to her family. But what if the girl has forgotten everything, even her own name? And what if the more Kyle gets to know her, the less he wants her to go home? The Memory of Things tells a stunning story of friendship and first love and of carrying on with our day-to-day living in the midst of world-changing tragedy and unforgettable pain—it tells a story of hope.

THE MEMORY OF THINGS, by Gae Polisner is one of the best young adult novels I have ever read. It's poignant, and powerful, and oh so painful. It's told in this brilliant kind of uneven, stumbling rhythm to the prose that would probably ruin the pacing of most stories, but works wonders for this tale, leaving you feeling like you're reading wounded, crawling haphazardly away from the wreckage of your own despair.

We all remember 9/11, but there are many points view through which that horror can be recalled, and Kyle and his silent, nameless friend's are simultaneously two of the most harrowing and deeply moving lenses through which to recall those memories. This isn't so much a story about that disaster, or about tragedy in general, as it is a story about hope, and how the power of human kindness, and the resilience of mankind's spirit allows us to survive almost anything, and then, with time, eventually heal.

It's not the most exciting or epic tale, told almost exclusively from Kyle and his friend's points of view, almost the only two characters in the novel with speaking parts, and it almost all takes place in side of Kyle's little apartment in Brooklyn, and yet the emotions and the truths and the interactions of the characters are as grand and as sweeping, and more importantly-as authentic, as any narrative.

Anyway, assuming, with the obvious caveat of the potential trigger warning for anyone who lived through it, I simply cannot recommend this book highly enough. It touched me deeply, and I believe it will move you too.

You can find out more about Gae Polisner, on:

Her Website | Twitter | Her Blog | Her Facebook Page

Review of Eleanor & Park at YA Confidential

I know, I never blog anymore. Sorry about that, but I've been writing.

Anyway, I'm over at YA Confidential today, "un-reviewing" ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell, and I'd love it if you'd stop by and have a read.

Kurt Dinan's Current Query

Yes, I still blog. And yes, I'm still open to critiquing queries. I know, it's been a while, and yeah, writing and blogging has been tough for me so far this year, but that doesn't mean I'm done or anything.

Thank you very much.

Anyway, Kurt is a referral. I don't know him, but he was pretty cool in his emails, so I'm hooking him up. You can find him online, on his blog, here.

Here's his query:

Dear ______,

Sophomore Max Lewis is living in a world of suck: he’s considered a nobody for quitting the lacrosse team, he’s just pissed off a tyrant - err - vice principal, and now he’s been humiliated in the latest epic prank by the mysterious Chaos Club.

And that’s just his first day of school.

Angry, embarrassed, and tired of being victimized, Max recruits four other misfits to form The Water Tower 5. Their goal? Destroy the Chaos Club. But how do you wipe out an organization with an anonymous membership capable of trapping cows on the school roof and assembling stolen desks into a giant phallus on the football field? Easy, by relying on what Max does best – scheming, scamming, and swindling.

Well, maybe not that easy.

The Water Tower 5 lures the Chaos Club into the open by framing them for a series of pranks involving precision vomiting and indecent pictures of the school mascot. Unfortunately, they also succeed in attracting the attention of the school’s administration and security team. And it’s not like the Chaos Club is going to let a bunch of underclassmen take them down without a fight. Soon, Max finds himself arrested, suspended, and even worse, dealing with an angry girlfriend. With summer only days away, can Max devise a caper ingenious enough to clear his name and expose the Chaos Club? (Hint: It’s possible, but he’s going to need a hell of a lot of weather balloons to pull it off.)

THE WATER TOWER 5 is a contemporary YA novel (94,000 words) fusing the offbeat relationships of The Breakfast Club with the capers and cons of Ocean’s 11. I'm a nineteen-year veteran of teaching high school English who has had various short stories published online and in print. My short story "Nub Hut" appeared in 2010's Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

That's it.

Please save your feedback for tomorrow, but feel free to thank Kurt for his courage in the comments.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Finale

I just finished my second read through of GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE, my favorite YA novel ever. I finished it in the bathroom at work, where I had to nab some toilet paper to dab at my eyes before walking back out to my desk like a little bitch.

The ending is beautiful and poetic and perfect.

The parts I finished were called: NEVER LOOK FOR ICE CREAM IN A SPERM FREEZER • A REAL CONCRETE IOWA THINKER • NIGHTTIME IN EDEN • THE FINALE OF SEEM • THE SUNSHINE BORES THE DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME • THE RIGHT KIND OF CIGARETTES TO SMOKE JUST BEFORE YOU KILL SOMETHING • THERE ARE NO CUP-O-NOODLES IN EDEN • RAT BOYS FROM MARS, AND AN UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT INVOLVING AN INFLATABLE WHALE • THE BATTLE OF THE DEL VISTA ARMS • THE END OF THE WORLD • PICTURES OF ROBBY AND SHANN • THE INTERGALACTIC BUG COPS • ENOLA GAY AND BEAU BARTON'S BONER • THE BATTLE OF KELSEY CREEK BRIDGE • GREAT BIG JAR • [REDACTED]

The greatest line I've possibly ever read in any novel comes from the part titled THE FINALE OF SEEM, which (the part title, not the line) is partially paraphrased from a real dynamo of an Iowan rhyming poem, The Emperor of Ice-Cream, by Wallace Stevens.

The line is:

"It is the strangest machine: pencil and paper, paint and wall; medium, surface, and man. The machine stitches all roads into one, weaves every life together, everything."

In case you can't figure out what's going on here (it would be difficult without the context of the book, I'm sure) what Smith (or really Austin, but it's meta) is describing here is the matrix of story. The machine, the codex, the method, the form, the idea, the need for story.

And he's describing it in a breathtakingly beautiful manner, don't you think? I certainly do.

From painting in blood and berry juice on the walls of caves to publishing bits and bytes onto little plastic digital decoders, man has always needed story. Story comforts us in the night. Story prepares us for danger. Story heals wounds. Story makes us fall in love, forgive, hope, dream, fight and fuck, and laugh and cry, and live and die with meaning.

Austin Szerba understands story. He knows that everything is connected. Austin records history. He sees that it mostly repeats itself, except for getting dumber and dumber. Austin tells the truth, and he realizes that the truth is all we need.

I hope you enjoyed this series. I certainly enjoyed writing it, even if the best part was just reading the book in a different manner than I did the first time, and thinking about it as deeply as the hectic bullshit of my life allowed me to.

The winner of a brand new hardcover copy of this book was Michael Offut, so please email me your address when you see this, Mike. As for the winner of the other copy and the t-shirt from Amy's giveaway during the tour, I believe she will be contacting you through whatever address you entered into the Rafflecopter.

I probably won't be blogging for a little while now, so take care of yourselves.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 10

This will probably be my second to last post in this series. I am almost finished with the book. Since my last post, I've read these parts: ROBBY THE THEOLOGIAN • SATAN AND THE PASTOR • SERIAL KILLER USA • LOOKING FOR WIGGLES • CONCERNING THE BISON, AND FREE WILL • POPULATION EXPLOSION • EVERYTHING A GUY COULD NEED, AND THE TWO BEST ROCK ALBUMS EVER MADE • THE BLOOD OF GOD • WANDA MAE'S PINK BOWLING BALL • RULES ARE RULES, BUT THE BRAIN ROOM IS NOT PARTICULARLY BRAINY

I didn't write down any great lines from this part of the book. Not because there aren't any (there are), but maybe because at this point the story is moving forward at such breakneck speed, and so much is happening, and so much is falling apart around Ealing, Iowa, I just didn't have any single lines stick in my mind.

Grasshopper Jungle Release Tour and Review

Title: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE

Author: Andrew Smith

Genre: Fiction | YA | LBGT

Release Date: 2/11/14

Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.
To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He is stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann.

Ultimately, it is up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

B&N  | IndieBound | Goodreads  | Amazon

This is the truth. This is history.
It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it.
You know what I mean.

February 3rd – The Midnight Garden

February 3rd – The Story Siren

February 4th – Good Choice Reading

February 4th ^– Bookish

February 5th – I Read Banned Books

February 5th – Jenna Does Books

February 6th – Bibliophilia, Please

February 6th – Escaping One Book At A Time

February 7th – Scott Reads It

February 7th – Live to Read

February 10^{th –} Alice Marvels

February 10^{th –} The Society

February 11^{th –} Lexi Swoons

February 11^{th –} A Reader of Fictions

February 12^{th –} Roof Beam Reader

February 12^{th –} Forever Young Adult

February 13^{th –} The Compulsive Reader

February 13^{th –} Books and Bling

February 14^{th –} Book Chic Club

February 14^{th –} The QQQE

February 17^{th –} JeanBookNerd

February 17^{th –} Ticket to Anywhere

February 18^{th –} Sleep Eat Read Books

February 18^{th –} Read Now Sleep Later

February 19^{th –} Anna Reads

February 19^{th –} Word Spelunking

February 20^{th –} Books With Bite

February 20^{th –} What A Nerd Girl Says

February 21^{st –} Wastepaper Prose

February 21^{st –} LRB – Guest

February 24^{th –} We Are Word Nerds

February 24^{th –} Cabin Goddess

February 25^{th –} Ex Libris

February 25^{th –} Cari's Book Blog

February 25^{th –} A Good Addiction

February 26^{th –} YA Reads

February 26^{th –} The Young Folks

February 27^{th –} Novel Thoughts

February 27^{th –} Fangirlish

February 28^{th –} Once Upon a Twilight

February 28^{th –} Naughty Book Kitties

Andrew Smith is the award-winning author of several Young Adult novels, including the critically acclaimed Winger (Starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness—an Amazon “Best of the Year”) and The Marbury Lens (A YALSA BFYA, and Starred reviews and Best of the Year in both Publishers Weekly and Booklist).

He is a native-born Californian who spent most of his formative years traveling the world. His university studies focused on Political Science, Journalism, and Literature. He has published numerous short stories and articles. Grasshopper Jungle, coming February 11, 2014, is his seventh novel. He lives in Southern California.

Twitter | Facebook | GR | Website

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Thanks so much to Amy and Kriss (and anyone else involved) who made this gorgeous tour look the way it looks, and for all the other hard work involved. GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE is quite literally my favorite young adult novel, and it's also really pushing the limits toward my all time favorite book. But that's not what we're here for.

We're here for an overall review (and a giveaway, obviously), so maybe I better get to that, eh? I know probably none of you have been reading my series of responding to the book as I re-read it, section by section, but that doesn't really matter. That's an entirely different animal.

So ... without further ado, here is my review.

GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE, which is not officially sub-titled: A HISTORY, is about a lot of things. What does that mean, anyway? About? Well, in my opinion, when you're talking about art, about means ... meaning. Specifically, it means what it means to me.

Well, that sounds simple, but it isn't. Don't worry. That's a good thing. Mainly, to me, this book is about questions. Not only like, what does history mean if we're bound to repeat it anyway, which is obviously an important question man has pondered for some time, but also like: who are we, and what defines us as men and women, boys and girls, cowards and heroes, and sinners and saints and all the spectrums in between? Is it actions? Thoughts? Behaviors? Accomplishments? Asking the right questions? Questioning things in general?

I would argue that's it's all of the above, but I don't have to argue that of all the things I possess in this life, knowledge of self is probably the most valuable. Nothing trumps it. It's not always a nice, easy thing to possess, because I'm a human being, and being a human being is fucking hard sometimes, but it helps to know that I am fragile and imperfect and kind and sensitive and observant and brave.

I am a lot like Austin Szerba.

I am a lot like Robby Brees.

I am not so much like Shann Collins, but I love her anyway.

Austin has a lot of questions. Austin questions himself a lot. He doesn't have a lot of answers, but he does have the truth, and his devotion to telling it is one of the greatest things about his character and about this book. THE greatest thing about both is his love for his friends. I don't know if I've ever had friends as great as Austin and Robby, but I know that if I ever did, I would treasure them.

And ... I hope you don't mind that I didn't really talk about the plot. You can find out about that all over the internet, if you want, but I thought it would make more sense to write a little bit about how much this book means to me, since that too might make you want to buy it.

Which is kind of the point after all, isn't it?

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 9

I can't.

We're nearing the end here.

I'm not sure I know what to write.

GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE dropped on the world last night. Some people knew about it.

The sections I read since the last post were all part of PART 4: THE END OF THE WORLD. They were not called: WE, THE NEW HUMANS • LAST LEGS • DAVY CROCKETT AND DANIEL BOONE NEVER WORE COONSKIN CAPS •GARLIC, DR PEPPER, AND CRYSTAL METH • CLICKETY CLICKETY • ON THE ROOF AGAIN • DENNY DRAYTON HAS A GUN, MOTHERFUCKER • EXILE IN EDEN • A CHANCE MEETING UNDER A PORTRAIT OF A PRESBYTERIAN, OR, CALVIN COOLIDGE'S CANOE • A MOST SOOTHING SHOWER HEAD • INFINITA MILITES! INFINITA MILITES!

I'm personally frustrated, for professional and personal reasons, but those topics lie beyond the scope of this post.

The scope of this post, other than a vessel for the expression of my own Olympic satiation, is really basically pretty much just here to discuss one line.

This is not the best line in the book. But it's close.

It's probably the second best line I've ever read, in any book, ever written.

It reads:

Besides fucking and eating, a few of us human beings are driven to paint on the walls of caves.

I mean, seriously? Have you ever fucking read a single goddamn sentence that was so insightful? Laid out like the honest blood stains of a deserving victim in a gangster flick, in nineteen little words? Not one single member of their choir weighing in at over two syllables?

Me either.

Ponder their message for a minute.

I realize, full well, that two thirds of that message is somewhat juvenilve. Even for the less Victorian, even the scientific implications are somewhat rudimentary.

But the third. Oh saints that be, the third sentiment is the one! Why? Why are we? Why do we exist? Why do we matter? How do we feel? Why do we feel? In what way do those things matter? And why, and how, and when and in what way do any of those mean anything to any of us, ever, and forever, and when and why and how, and ... you know what I mean.

It's one of those lines. One of those Vonnegut or Thompson or Irving or Robbins lines that makes a classic American author a neverending classic.

As we near the end of this journey together, you, you five readers, and I, your dear and lonely author, we find ourselves at the crossroads of the obsoletion of blogs, and I hope that if I leave these posts up, eventually someone will find them who finds some meaning in them, but even if that never happens, I'm glad to have had something to say, for the second or third or whatever time, about the greatest young adult novel ever written.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 8

I finished PART 3: THE SILO this weekend. That, and I watched a lot of the Olympics. The second half of part 3 ends with these not-chapters: SOMETHING ALWAYS HAPPENS WHILE SOMEONE ELSE DANCES • LUCKY, IN POLISH BOY NAMES • MOVIE NIGHT IN EDEN • THE GOOD DOCTOR ACCOUNTS FOR HISTORY • UNSTOPPABLE CORN! UNSTOPPABLE CORN! • THREE OF FIVE • THE ORPHAN FELEK

These are some of the longest sections of the book. They explore some deep and distant history, but eventually, all roads converge.

Some of the best lines from this part of the book are:

It was Ingrid's silent way of kissing me.

Nobody would ever take an army of Communists without balls seriously.

Spanish missionaries were really good at naming shit.

Most of those are even better with context. I notice that the pace of the book slows a bit through this part. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean that the not-chapters are longer, there are more large paragraphs and long sentences, and I think Austin is a bit more contemplative (of course he's still sarcastic and hilarious ... and horny).

It's a sort of a deep breath before the plunge.

Now, I know hardly anyone is reading these, but make sure you comment if you do drop by because I'm giving away a copy of this book (which releases tomorrow) when this series of posts is done, and you have to comment on at least one of the posts to be entered. Then, on Friday the 14th, Amy Del Rosso will be giving away another copy, when I take part in her tour.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 7

The Book Release Party for GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE was held somewhere in L.A. last night. There were custom cocktails. I was jealous.

But at least I had my trusty ARC by my side. The book that has carried me through many a night these last weeks. Since Wednesday, I read these parts: FOUR PHOTOGRAPHS • THE PRESIDENT'S SPERM • THE VIRGIN SAINT AND HIS WARD • THE DIVING BELL • THE POPULAR GIRL • WELCOME TO EDEN • SOME KIND OF SIGN • GIMME SHELTER • THE DRAGON PARADE • SOUP FROM PAINT CANS • GIDEON'S BREEDING RIGHTS • THE QUEEN OF THE UNIVERSE • THE LIBRARY AND THE NEW TALLY-HO! • VENTILATOR BLUES

This may be the very best part of the book. It's definitely where things start to get pretty awesome for Austin, Robby, and Shann. It's my favorite part so far.

Here are some of the best lines from these sections:

Outside, in the distance, a police siren wailed like a plaintive coyote.

Nobody ever expects to be cheerfully greeted at midnight by a kid smoking in his underwear on a deserted street in Ealing, Iowa.

I took a drag, exhaled, and said, "Roof access, Rob." (this one requires some context in order to fully appreciate its brilliance, but that's the point of these posts - to get you to want to read the book)

Eileen's dance card was full. (this one needs context too, but any line that has "dance card" in it is a great line)

History shows that an examination of the personal collection of titles in any man's library will provide something of a glimpse into his soul.

I love that last line so much. It's such a great point. Books are special. They are almost holy, if you believe in that kind of thing. And let's face it: e-books are not the same.

Don't get me wrong. I love e-books. I love the convenience of my Kindle, especially when I'm traveling, but they're not the same as real books. Real books hold magic between their bindings. They are gateways to other worlds.

Besides, think about it: on that 4th or 5th date with a new person you keep finding more and more interesting each time you get together ... the date where they finally invite you over to their place. What's the first thing you do? Well, maybe the second, depending on how long it takes for that person to need to use the bathroom or slip into something more comfortable, what do you do? You take a look at their bookshelves.

Nothing reveals more about a person than an examination of their personal library. Nothing is more romantic than discovering a kindred spirit through the revelation of a mutual love of books.

Mick Jagger knew that. His favorite novel, or so I've read, was The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Here is one of Mick and the Stones' best rock tunes, which is mentioned in GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE:

It was meant to be that Eden would have its historian.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 6

Since Monday, I've been reading PART 3: THE SILO, which began with the un-titled not-chapter pictured above. I then read these parts of the book: A TOUGH DAY AT CURTIS CRANE LUTHERAN ACADEMY • BUGS DO TWO THINGS • A GIFT FROM JOHNNY MCKEON • SHANN CALLS • MY MOM'S LITTLE BLUE KAYAKS • PAGES FROM HISTORY • SCHOOL PRAYERS • THE VICE PRESIDENT'S BALLS • MODERN-DAY NIGHTINGALES • SHANN, THE HORNY POLISH KID, AND SATAN

I'm not going to share any of the great lines from these sections. Not because there aren't any (there are), but because I want to talk about the hardest part of this book.

Andrew Smith's books are all the same. Oh, they have different plots. A lens that takes you to another universe, wrangling horses and mountain lions, chasing after your brother (whether he was your little brother, and ran away with a psychopath, or was your older brother, and escaped the tortures of your familial home by himself), but they're all really about the same thing. Deep studies of character, and of relationships.

A friend of mine, Sarah Fine, who is a psychologist and an author, once blogged about characters, and relationships, and I'm paraphrasing here, but she referred to how the key of what she loved about relationships was the space between two people. I might go a little further. In a book, in fiction, when it's done well, a relationship, the space between two characters, can almost become a character of its own. A third, somewhat nebulous entity, whose arc can be followed independently.

In GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE, the two main characters are Austin and his best friend, Robby. Their relationship is one of the saddest and most beautiful things I have ever read about. Austin and Robby love each other very much. They are also teenage boys, so they are horny and confused and they do stupid things, to themselves, to each other, and to other people. This is what teenage boys do. I would even argue this is what teenage boys need to do. You need to make mistakes, to test the limits, to define the borders, to know your strengths and weaknesses, in order to become a man.

Not that GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE is about becoming men. It's not. It's about the end of the world. And history. But relationships are kind of about growing up. They're about learning about ourselves, and our fellow human beings. Austin and Robby keep doing dumber and dumber shit, but they love each other, and their brotherhood is a beautiful thing to behold, and my very, absolute favorite thing about this book, even if it's also the hardest thing not to cry about.

GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE drops in less than a week (next Tuesday, in the US) and you can pre-order it from (and I highly recommend you do):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | The Book Depository

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 5

I don't know the exact address of his birth, but Andrew Smith and I were born about 12 miles, and maybe 15 years, apart. He's a fan of Rubgy. I'm a fan of (American) Football. I think he knows, but I don't think he really cares, that our (American) Football team, the Seattle Seahawks, just won perhaps the most lopsided game in the history of the NFL Super Bowl. So as a #12thMan, I'd like to offer a major congratulations to my team, and a thumbed nose to Drew.

This post is going to cover the entire Part 2 of GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE: WATERLOO CORNFIELD. It's a somewhat short section of the book, but I also finished it because I missed so much blogging least week, and had plenty of time to read.

The not-chapters in this section of the book are called: PALINDROMES • A BATH, A SHAVE, AND MODESTY • JOHNNY AND OLLIE • THE PATCH JOB • SAY PLEASE • A SNAPSHOT • HAGGLED • [REDACTED] • SKATING AND KAYAKING • EDEN FIVE NEEDS YOU • AN AWFUL LOT OF MATH • TALLY-HO! • THE INNER TOMB • AND HERE'S NUMBER FIVE • TAKING DRAGS • A VISITOR COMES AND GOES • [REDACTED]

Not redacting some of those titles probably wouldn't have given that much away, as you'll see for yourselves when you read the book, but sometimes it's just fun to redact things.

Some of the best lines from this section of the book are:

Kayak and Xanax are palindromes.

Everyone knows I love you, too does not mean I love you.

History is unimpeachable, sublime.

Grimacing lemurs are a little unnerving.

I was horny and mathematically confused.

History also shows there aren't an awful lot of real friends on the record.

The place was as quiet as a cemetery in a morning snowfall.

The best part about WATERLOO CORNFIELD, apart from Austin making fun of things like Hollywood, stupid movies titles, Iowa entrepreneur's penchant for naming businesses hilariously, and his poor dog Ingrid's restless bowel, is how the plot all starts to come together/fall apart. It's like that moment when you're at the top of the highest point on the track of a roller coaster, and the entire world stops for just a moment, and you hold your breath, and look around, and marvel at the beauty of it all for what feels like an eternity, until you suddenly take the plunge and everything is screaming past you like a motherfucker.

You've all felt that before, right?

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 4

I'm getting behind on these. Damn the snowpocalypse!

I'm actually further along in the book than I'm going to blog about today, but I'm trying to keep these somewhat uniform. So I finished Part 1: EALING the other day, actually, but I'm blogging about it today, because.

These are the sections that I read that day: THE TRAPDOOR • HUNGRY JACK • JOHNNY'S THINGS • [REDACTED] • BLUE LIGHT • PRIORITIES • [REDACTED] • HISTORY IS FULL OF SHIT

I love that I'm finally getting to redact some of these.

These are some of the best lines from those sections:

I have read that the human memory for smells is one of the most powerful bits of data that can be etched into our brains.

The pictures were there to remind us what good teenage boys do with their hands.

I desperately wished they'd stop talking about the penis in the jar, but Grant and his friends were like lonely parakeets in front of a mirror.

It's difficult to avoid the truth when you're undressed.

Aren't those some great lines?

My favorite part about this part is that the plot really begins to come alive. I mean Andrew Smith novels are not about plots, they're about characters, but of course every story has a plot, and this one does not disappoint. I won't give it away or anything, but there's something that happens in one of these sections, that when I first read the book a few years ago, literally made me sit up and say, "Holy shit!" Like out loud, and everything.

You know what I mean.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 3

The corn. It's unstoppable.

Actually, not yet. I haven't gotten that far.

I did a little casual reading this weekend. Normally, I would have devoured this whole book in those few free days, but I've read it before, and I'm trying to pace myself. Sort of trying to make it last until release day. Anyway, I read these sections this weekend:

GOING SOMEWHERE YOU SHOULDNT GO • ROBBY'S VOLCANO • DOORS THAT GO SOMEWHERE; DOORS THAT GO NOWHERE • CURFEW •
STUPID PEOPLE SHOULD NEVER READ BOOKS • THE DEATH-RAY GUN • ROBBY COULD HAVE BEEN A PREACHER • NEVER NAME A PIZZA JOINT STAN'S • IF YOU EVER WANT TO GET SHOT IN EALING

Without giving too much away, plot-wise we're still in the very beginning of the book. Still meeting the characters, getting to know the town, and having the pudding-skin slowly peeled away from the madness underneath.

Here are some of my favorite Austin Szerba one-line zingers from this part of the book:

I might just as well have been a blowup doll.

Boys who dance are genetic volcanoes.

It wasn't a lie; it was an abbreviation.

I was on the conveyor belt toward the paper shredder of history with countless scores of other sexually confused boys.

If we didn't hate being Lutherans so much, Robby could easily have been a preacher.

And finally, my favorite part of this section of the book is the not-chapter titled STUPID PEOPLE SHOULD NEVER READ BOOKS. In it, Austin describes how he wrote a book report on THE CHOCOLATE WAR, by Robert Cormier, which I recently read and reviewed (and loved), and it's so hilarious and typical and just completely authentic the way the administration at his Lutheran school responds.

I would tell you all about it, but you should really just read the book (GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE and THE CHOCOLATE WAR, for that matter).

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 2

Why is all the imagery associated with a book called GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE of Preying Mantids? Well, you'll just have to read it to find out.

I realized last night while reading, that this was kind of a dumb idea. I mean, I love this book like I love all Andrew's books, and I want to share that love with everyone, but the idea of blogging about each section as I read, a few short weeks before the book releases, is kind of dumb. It's dumb because I don't want to give the plot away, and that makes it hard to write about.

Oh well. So what, right?

Last night I read these sections: LOUIS ASKS A RHETORICAL QUESTION • THERE'S BLOOD ON YOUR SPAM • GRANT WALLACE MURDERED ME • WHAT MADE THIS COUNTRY GREAT • SHANN'S NEW OLD HOUSE

I realize now I'm eventually going to have to redact some of these section titles. Partly because they are just too awesome, and partly because they will eventually spoil some parts of the plot (maybe).

There's a great review of Grasshopper Jungle on Goodreads, by a guy named Chris. Chris really gets these section titles.

You'll find when you read this book that the section I read last night is not that long. That's partly because I was busy writing, and partly because when I start reading in bed I get tired fast, and partly because this book is so good, you kid of have to savor it.

So anyway, some things that struck me while I was reading last night:

• This story is about a lot of things, but mainly this story is about Austin and Robby.
• In this section is when we are first introduced to the double meaning of Grasshopper Jungle: a History. If you know Smith's books, you know they're often intertwined with ghosts of the past, or characters from centuries gone, or ... history. It makes a great double entendre.
• The Del Vista Arms is a locale in the story that comes up a lot. Del Vista means Of the View. Arms has to do with American imitation of English inn names. Such as Court, Hall, Manor, etc. It could also come from British pub names, referencing Coat of Arms. It's one of those silly American misappropriations of language that are common in the Midwest, and of course, hilarious.
• One of the funniest threads you'll hopefully notice when you read this book is that Austin is acutely aware of the odor of things. In this section it just starts out as socks, but soon it get's a hell of a lot funnier.
• Hy-Vee is first mentioned on page 20. Hy-Vee is awesome:

• One of my favorite things about the narrator Austin's voice is how he interjects these clever staccato (sometimes sarcastic, sometimes incredibly wise) lines into his exposition, and they work brilliantly to chop up the pace, make you think, or just plain make you laugh your ass off.

Here are a couple examples from this section of the book:

Citrus does not grow in Iowa.

History is full of decapitations, and Iowa is no exception.

And that's half a century of an Iowa town's history in four sentences.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

I've finished my 2014 YA gap book reading (The Chocolate War, Speak, and Holes were all phenomenal), so now I'm treating myself to my ARC of Grasshopper Jungle, by Andrew Smith.

Moreover, since we're getting pretty close to the release date now, I thought I'd blog daily about my thoughts as I read. This book is a crazy thrill ride (I've read it before) so I think it will be fun for people to see how I react to certain parts ... without giving too much away.

So, last night I didn't have time to read much, but I started with PART 1: EALING. It begins:

This section, which isn't really a foreward or a preamble or a prologue or anything like that, is still special. For one, it's not labeled. Most of the other sections (kind of like chapters but kind of not) have awesome labels. Things like FIXING FEET, BUGS DO TWO THINGS, and GRANT WALLACE MURDERED ME. They're all clever, funny, and important to the book. But this section isn't titled like the others.

What it is, I think, is a brilliant promise to the reader. Most of you are writers, so you've probably heard of the saying the first page makes a promise to the reader. That's not all it does, of course, but it's one thing it does. This section promises that Grasshopper Jungle is a history. A history of the end of the world, to be precise, but most importantly: a history. A history in which people, as they are wont to do, keep doing dumber and dumber shit. This section promises that this story will be a wild thrill ride, filled with madness and mayhem and love and loyalty and friendship and family, and always--always the truth. This section hints at some of the details of the crazy things to come, showing the reader just how nuts the plot of this book is going to get, but it also clues you in to Austin Szerba: how he thinks, how he writes, how much he cares about recording the history of the end of the world.

Somebody has to.

Anyway, I read a little further than that, obviously, but this section has always stuck in my mind, so I wanted to share it with you. I'll be back tomorrow for more, but I won't be breaking down the details of every page or anything. Just ruminating a bit on what sticks out to me and so on.

Hopefully this will help to build some excitement as we approach the release of one of my all time favorite novels.

Stay tuned, because at the end of all of this I'll be giving away a copy that I owe my readers after betting Andrew on the Braves/Dodgers MLB Divisional playoffs last fall (I know, I'm pretty late on that - sorry).

The book drops on February 11th 2014 from Dutton Juvenile (Penguin) and you can find out more at:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Penguin

Andrew Smith's Website | Andrew Smith's Blog

The Chocolate War Reviewed at YA Confidential

I'm over at YA Confidential once again today, reviewing my first YA classic gap book read of the year, The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier.

2014 YA Reading

I'm finally doing one of those years where I actually keep track of every single book I read. For now I'm just using my phone, but I'll eventually update Goodreads. I'm hoping to get to 40 books. I'm a somewhat slow reader, so 40 books would be a good number for me.

Anyway, for Christmas I got this (from my dear friend Amy Del Rosso):

It's a t-shirt and the ARC of Grasshopper Jungle, by my very favorite author, Andrew Smith.

Luckily, I read an earlier ARC of this story, because I'm going to use my enthusiasm for reading this new copy to encourage myself to read three of my biggest kid lit gap books:

The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier

Jerry Renault ponders the question on the poster in his locker: Do I dare disturb the universe? Refusing to sell chocolates in the annual Trinity school fund-raiser may not seem like a radical thing to do. But when Jerry challenges a secret school society called The Vigils, his defiant act turns into an all-out war. Now the only question is: Who will survive? First published in 1974, Robert Cormier's groundbreaking novel, an unflinching portrait of corruption and cruelty, has become a modern classic.

Before there was such a thing as Young Adult (three years before I was born, in fact), Robert Cormier wrote one of the all time classic books about teens. I'm reading this one now, and am duly impressed by Cormier's grasp of character.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

I know all about this book. I even participated in the SPEAK LOUDLY Twitter campaign when it was (once again) being challenged, but I still have not read it. I know, I know. This one's up next.

Holes, by Louis Sachar

And so, Stanley Yelnats seems set to serve an easy sentence, which is only fair because he is as innocent as you or me. But Stanley is not going where he thinks he is. Camp Green Lake is like no other camp anywhere. It is a bizarre, almost otherworldly place that has no lake and nothing that is green. Nor is it a camp, at least not the kind of camp kids look forward to in the summertime. It is a place that once held "the largest lake in Texas," but today it is only a scorching desert wasteland, dotted with countless holes dug by the boys who live at the camp.

The trouble started when Stanley was accused of stealing a pair of shoes donated by basketball great Clyde "Sweetfeet" Livingston to a celebrity auction. In court, the judge doesn't believe Stanley's claim that the shoes fell from the sky onto his head. And yet, that's exactly what happened. Oddly, though, Stanley doesn't blame the judge for falsely convicting him. Instead, he blames the whole misadventure on his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather." Thanks to this benighted distant relative, the Yelnats family had been cursed for generations. For Stanley, his current troubles are just a natural part of being a Yelnats.

At Camp Green Lake, the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the treacherous warden is searching for something, and before long Stanley begins his own search—for the truth.

Fate conspires to resolve it all—the family curse, the mystery of the holes, the drought that destroyed Green Lake, and also, the legend of Kissing Kate Barlow, an infamous outlaw of the Wild West. The great wheel of justice has ground slowly for generations, but now it is about to reveal its verdict.

Having won a Newberry, I can only assume this book is more MG than YA, but the forced labor camp for young people aspect has often been compared to similar thematic elements in my own writing, so I figure it's another must read. No I have not seen the movie, and no I will not see the movie, since I can't stand Shia LeBouf.

What are you reading right now?

Teen Eyes Contest Announcement

I'll be hosting an awesome editorial based contest next month for my friend Brent Taylor. There's a lot of info, so I'll just let him explain.

Three teen editors on three blogs with three prizes. Win!

Have you ever wondered if your young adult, new adult, or middle grade manuscript would hook a teen reader? We all have. So what better way to find out then a contest with the talented teens of TEEN EYES EDITORIAL.

Here's a bit about the editors . . .

Brent Taylor

Brent Taylor lives in Louisville, Kentucky. He’s an ex-gymnast and worked as a children’s and YA specialist at a New York-based literary agency for two years. His articles have appeared in School Library Journal and VOYA, and he is a contributing writer at Lambda Literary and Huffington Post Teen.

Brent was raised in middle grade fantasy, hung out with YA contemporary for years, and is now enjoying every stolen moment on his porch swing with nice literary and not-so-literary fiction. He loves narrators that take him on wild rides to worlds and situations he’s never experienced before and fresh plotlines.

You can follow him on Twitter.

Julie Daly

Julie's name is actually Julianne, but nobody ever remembers that. She became serious about being a book blogger while procrastinating finishing her NaNoWriMo novel and hasn't been able to leave the publishing world since. A book blogger for three years, Julie is also the assistant for YA author C.J. Redwine, and a critique partner or occasional beta reader to anyone who asks. She wrote her first book at age nine and has dozens of false starts for novels since then. Despite this, Julie was one of five winners in a short story competition judged by several published authors and a finalist in a competition to get a short story published in a HarperTeen anthology. When not doing any of the above, she's staring at her far-too-large to-be-read pile and trying to figure out what to read next. To the world outside of her computer, Julie's just a girl in NYC trying to get her BA in English Literature and a Publishing Certificate despite the lure of British television.

Julie is a sucker for anything with a good romance in it, especially if it's also historical fiction, fantasy, steampunk, sci-fi, dystopian, cyberpunk, or contemporary. "Time-travel," "fairy tale retelling," and "Downton Abbey" are some of her major buzz words.

You can find Julie on twitter, tumblr, and her YA book review blog.

Grace Smith

Grace is a fourteen year old who likes to think that she is more like an adult. She's known that she's wanted to go into the publishing industry since she was twelve, and was absolutely certain of it after attending BookExpo America in 2012 and falling in love with the publishing world. During those two years, Grace has been passionately blogging about books, entering writing competitions, and critiquing for authors such as Kimberly Sabatini and Lindsay Cummings. Grace is also an intern for Immortal Ink Publishing and is a Paper Lantern Lit Trendsetter. Grace has written one novel, among her many short stories and poems, and is currently hard at work on her second. In her year of competing, she has never lost a writing competition, and is her school's representative in the district competition. She reads about 2-3 books per day and can never read or write enough. When not working or daydreaming about New York City, she is known as an identical twin and a dancer.

Overall, the number one thing that Grace loves in stories is passion. She loves poetic or lyrical writing, fairy tale retellings, books based on folk tales, and she still is in love with the paranormal genre. She loves romance overall, but is also in love with historical fiction, contemporary, sci-fi, and fantasy. Grace wants a book that will make her feel alive or overly emotional.

You can find Grace on her book review blog or on Twitter.

Each editor will read different type of entries for new adult, young adult, and middle grade manuscripts (please see info. below each editor's picture for their genre tastes) on these three blogs . . .

Brenda Drake Writes...under the influence of coffee

Brenda Drake will host editor Brent Taylor who will judge query letters. The winner will receive a $100 gift voucher to use towards any of his editorial services (expires in 2014).

The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment

Matthew MacNish will host editor Grace Smith who will judge 1st pages (250-word max.). The winner will receive a 20K in-depth manuscript critique. 

Random Notes from Holly Bodger

Holly Bodger will host editor Julie Daly who will judge logline pitches. The winner will receive a reader’s report of their full manuscript.

The submission posts on all three blogs will go live on August 5 at 8AM EST. Here's the great part, you can enter on one, two, or all three of the blogs for a chance to win the prize on that blog (one prize per person). 

You don't have to follow us on our blogs or on twitter or spread the word to win, but we'd love it if you did. All you have to do is come back and enter on the submission post on August 5.

Note from Matt: I'm also over at Project Mayhem today, discussing FEAR.